Our Executive Director

Dear Community Members:

As we prepare to start this year’s Annual Fund Drive on April 1st, I am excited to tell you about some of the recent developments at the Ophelia Project and Boys Initiative (OPBI).  Our Board of Directors recently approved our new mission statement “To be the recognized leader in social-emotional learning for youth in Tampa Bay” as well as our continued organizational purpose to “Transform Youth from the Inside Out!” 

For those of you who are acquainted with Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) you know that like the iceberg, it addresses all the thoughts, emotions and feelings that are occurring below the surface or inside of youth that influence their choices, actions and behaviors we see them make on a daily basis, both positively and negatively.

As educators continue to debate the best ways to promote student success, they have tended to distinguish between the social and emotional, and the academic aspects of children’s learning. Growing evidence now suggests, however, that these two kinds of learning are intimately connected.  A recent bill introduced into Congress in December of last year to make social-emotional learning a key component of proposed national education reform efforts confirms what the growing body of research is showing, and what we at OPBI have known all along.

In a nutshell, SEL teaches the skills we all need to handle ourselves, our relationships, and our work, effectively and ethically. They form a strong foundation for young peoples’ safety and success not just in school, but in their adult lives as members of the community, as business leaders, as productive workers, and as parents.

For both children and adults, these skills include:

1) Self-awareness: Identification, recognition and management of one's own emotions, as well as a strong sense of self-efficacy and self confidence.
2) Social awareness: Developing empathy, respect, caring, and concern for others.
3) Responsible decision making: The ability to engage in healthy evaluation and self-reflection as well as taking personal and ethical responsibility to ensure good decision making.
4) Self - management: Impulse control, stress management, handling challenging situations constructively and ethically as well as demonstrating persistence and healthy goal setting.
5) Relationship skills: Cooperation, collaboration, establishing healthy relationships, and learning positive communication and problem-solving/conflict resolution skills.

Since its inception, in 2002, OPBI has been incorporating the five components of social-emotional learning into all its programming for both youth and adults.  Over the next  5 years you will hear us doing more to educate all community stakeholders about the importance of SEL as the avenue to create the external results we all agree are important: safe school cultures, reduction in acts of bullying, violence and other at-risk behaviors, capable youth leaders, and most importantly, youth who are well-adapted and highly functioning individuals who are achieving success in all areas of their lives!

Thank you for your continued support and please consider making us one of the organizations you give to this year, so that together we can continue to "Transform Youth from the Inside Out" for many years to come!

In Peace ,
Robin Rose, Executive Director

Click here to schedule Robin to speak at your next meeting.